Court outcomes
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) takes compliance and enforcement action against licensees and businesses who fail to meet their legal obligations under laws we administer. The type of enforcement action depends on the circumstances and is guided by our compliance and enforcement policy. Read about our compliance approach.
Most of our court actions relate to businesses breaching Australian Consumer Law (ACL). ACL applies to businesses in all states and territories.
We can prosecute a person or organisation when we believe fair trading legislation has been breached. A court decides if the law has been broken and whether to issue an order or a fine.
Depending on the issues involved, court orders can:
- require the business to remedy their conduct with anyone who has been negatively affected, for example, pay restitution or replace a product
- void, change or refuse to enforce the terms of a contract
- cancel the business’s licence or place conditions on them if they were licensed by OFT.
A court can order a fine to punish an activity, prevent the business from reoffending, set a precedent or send a message to the community.
Depending on the type of case, the court can order:
- civil fines—unpaid civil fines can lead to the seizure and sale of the business’s assets or bankruptcy proceedings
- criminal fines—unpaid criminal fines can lead to imprisonment.
Prosecution action register
This register provides details of the prosecution actions we've taken.